Mission: Revamping The Afro Asian Connection and customizing a dating script

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Technology Used: PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript

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Even though it’s already out in over 50 countries, the Blackberry Bold is coming to ATT.

The phone will cost a cool $300 with a new 2 year contract (compared to $200 for iPhone 3G)

I am pretty mad because I had waited a long time to get this phone (which would have been so cool.. a bold for a bold CEO? he he) but ended up getting the Motorola Q instead.

This was confirmed by a press release on ATT’s site. I wonder if this will help RIMM, whose stock price has taken a beating (currently trading at ~ $48 at the time of this writing. It had reached a 52 week high of $147 in preceding months)

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Apparently, these guys are touting their method of tethering your iPhone the ONLY reason you should even consider Jail Breaking your iPhone (since Jailbreaking comes with the risk of your iPhone getting bricked by Apple).

(Click on Image to read article)

via iSmashPhone

So you’ve got a killer idea but you don’t know how to bring it to life.
You’ve spent a considerable amount of time drawing out the details on paper, but everytime you want to start working on it, you think of 2 extra features that will make your idea even better. You continue doing this until you realise, that you are yet to even start implementing your idea.

The problem with this is that, you might find yourself in a position to never really start the project because instead of your idea being the great idea you thought it was, it is now a daunting series of tasks that you have to handle. Even worse, you start spending time “planning your plan”.You fall victim to an eternal cycle of planning your idea, and never actually begin your conceptualization process and would rather spend time planning.

Whether you are brainstorming a project or business idea, it is very important to get the BARE essentials of your idea out and then get to work immediately. The first concept is very important to ship out the door. This means if you think you have the next killer facebook application, you need to sit down and decide what the CORE features of the application will be, before you even start coding. Once you have this list of CORE features ironed out, you need to get going ASAP.

Your favorite application (whether it is Adobe Photoshop, facebook or MS word) wasn’t always as complete, as pretty  or as feature-full as  you find it today. It has gone through many iterations of design, bug fixes and optimization to bring it to the point where the developers felt as though it was ready for the world.

Chances are, if the  application were as feature-filled as it is today, when it first came out, it wouldn’t have been as widely adopted. However, if you had loyal customers using your product when it was in its bare form, and you release a new feature, they will appreciate that feature and learn to use it easier within the context of what they were using your application for in the first place.

Remember, too much planning CAN be a BAD thing.

This post is a little late, but I figured, better late than never right?

Sunday was Mother’s Day (and my Birthday). This was an important day to me because my mother is by far the most important woman in my life (along with my 2 younger sisters). I made sure to call my mother as soon as I awoke. I wished her a Happy Mother’s Day and thanked her for her Birthday card that she sent me and hung up.

She called me back later, pretty disappointed that I didn’t make more of an effort to let her know how much I appreciated her. It’s pretty funny because the call took me by surprised. I’ve never been a super emotional person, but I felt bad that my mom would feel that way, seeing how most of my friends hear me talk about her repeatedly and talk about how great of a mother she is. I constantly boast about how she is the smartest person I know (she’s a very very smart doctor). I boast about her accomplishments, her cooking, her smile/jovial nature, her loving nature and just everything about her.

Being a good mother is the hardest job in the world. It’s one of those things that you never really appreciate as a child until you are older. When growing up, your parents might irritate you and you tend to take a lot of things they do/sacrifice for granted. I can’t say that I’ve ever taken anything my parents have done for granted, but I can see how it is easy to do so. If you have a mother that’s anything like mine then you have a wonder woman in your life and you must make an effort to let her know she is so.

So Mom if you ever read this, I love you and you are the main reason I am where I am today. I only hope that  I can be half the parent that you are to me, because I do not know what I would do if you weren’t there to support me, inspire me and serve as my role model. I Love you Wonder Woman and Happy Mother’s Day!

I remember the first facebook application I installed. It was the “Where I’ve Been” Application, an application that allows you to mark the countries you’ve either been to, lived in or want to visit. It was a really cool flash application and I remember not really thinking much of this whole facebook applications phenomenon. I liked the “Where I’ve Been” application a lot, but besides that most of the others got my nerves. I would get invited to install tons of applications and it was just getting ridiculous. “Why are you throwing a virtual sheep at me?” I still haven’t accepted or rejected most of them because it would take too long to do so.

When I first heard that TripAdvisor was offering $3 Million for the application, I was in shock. “For a freaking facebook application?!?! Are you kidding me?” To understand my point of view, as I stated in my first blog entry, I seem to have a knack for really cool ideas. When facebook created it’s market place, I had already come up with the concept for an online college market place. I had thought about developing an application for it, but was discouraged to do so by a friend (I know, I know, i didn’t follow my heart and let some guy stop me from pursuing an idea). Instead, I created the application for my senior software project class but never really launched it since I had a hectic summer.

At Startup School (See previous Post), I met the creator of the facebook application, Entourage who had just sold his application for an undisclosed amount to SGN (Social Gaming Network). He and his buddy (who had just sold the nicknames application) were taking a trip to Brazil to celebrate their sale. I mean, I always knew that space was lucrative, but It never really hit me until this past weekend. It’s like the difference between knowing who Michael Jordan is, and then actually playing basketball with Michael Jordan.. very very different.

It’s funny because a few weeks ago, a freshman friend of mine, Perry R and I, were talking about the facebook application world, and being a former facebook employee, Perry knew a lot more about that world than I did. For part of Digitalvaliance’s offering, I was thinking about Digitalvaliance helping people develop their facebook application as part of its offering. Perry offered his advice, but said that instead of helping others create applications, that we should seriously look into creating our own applications, as it was a very lucrative world.

Since then, we have kept tabs on facebook applications in general and have ideas for 3 applications, which will go into development next week. We are not looking for the “next big thing” persay, but we want to have a presence in that space, as we feel as though it is perfect for our mission of “Bold Creativity”

Now I know a lot of you are going to be like “suure you came up with an idea like facebook marketplace” or “knack for really cool ideas eh? well who doesn’t?! “. Those who’ve known me for a long time, will be able to attest to this. However because of my academic endeavors and other engagements, I was never able to make “the leap”. I’ve kinda watched on the sidelines while most of my ideas have been brought to fruition by others. Most of the times, its because I lacked the resources to bring my ideas to life. At other times, it was simply because I had the following mindset: “I am at Stanford to get my degree, and once I’m done, I don’t doubt that I will come up with a really cool idea, like I’ve always been able to do but right now I am developing myself and my brain”.

Most people get mad when an idea they had, gets implemented by someone else and that person becomes successful. I get mad too, but I usually can’t help but smile. It makes me realize that my creative “mojo”, is as strong as ever and that at any given time, one of the 20 ideas I have written on paper could really become huge.